Hydrogen fluoride is widely used by industry in a variety of processes. For example, hydrogen fluoride is used in fluorocarbon manufacture. In such processes, it is desirable to separate the hydrogen fluoride from the reactants and products. However, hydrogen fluoride can be difficult to separate in these processes because it is highly soluble in a variety of organic materials and may form azeotropic mixtures with these materials.
A number of methods have been developed for separating hydrogen fluoride from organic materials. For example, separation of hydrogen fluoride from a hydrogen fluoride-organic azeotropic composition using water is known. However, this method is disadvantageous because hydrogen fluoride forms an azeotropic composition with water making recovery of the hydrogen fluoride difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,832 discloses the separation of hydrogen fluoride from a hydrocarbon stream by passing the stream over a sodium fluoride bed. This method is energy intensive in that high temperatures are required to liberate the hydrogen fluoride from the sodium fluoride bed.
Other known methods include the use of sulfuric acid, alkaline earth compounds, molecular sieves, distillation, and membranes to facilitate separation of the hydrogen fluoride. However, each of these known methods is disadvantageous in that these processes are inefficient or costly to operate. Thus, a need exists for a process for separating hydrogen fluoride from organic materials that does not suffer from the disadvantages of the prior art methods.